Pickering's Tony Sharpe reinstated for federal sports funding

The Speed Academy coach looking forward to working with national program

Pickering's Tony Sharpe reinstated for federal sports funding

STEVE RUSSELL/Torstar

PICKERING -- Tony Sharpe, a former teammate of Ben Johnson's and a bronze medalist in the 4x100 relay in the Los Angeles Olympics, has had his right to federal sports funding restored 24 years after Canada's infamous doping scandal. Sharpe coaches kids in his Speed Academy Club at St. Mary Catholic Secondary School in Pickering. September 25, 2012

Tony Sharpe

STEVE RUSSELL/Torstar

PICKERING -- Tony Sharpe, left, does resistance training with his athletes. Sharpe, a former teammate of Ben Johnson's and a bronze medalist in the 4x100 relay in the Los Angeles Olympics, has had his right to federal sports funding restored 24 years after Canada's infamous doping scandal. Sharpe coaches kids in his Speed Academy Club at St. Mary Catholic Secondary School in Pickering. September 25, 2012

PICKERING -- It was April 3, 1989, when sprinter Tony Sharpe climbed briskly onto the stand in a Bay St. hearing room and swore to tell the truth.

And he did.

He told a federal commission looking into the use of drugs and banned substances in sports -- the Dubin Inquiry -- that he'd helped his disgraced teammate Ben Johnson smuggle steroids into a Guadeloupe training camp five years earlier.

He testified that Johnson -- who had been stripped of his 100-metre Olympic gold medal the previous September after testing positive for the muscle building drugs -- had been a fellow long-term steroid user.

And he stated that there was little anyone could do to stop elite athletes from using banned substances in the future.

"Their chance of getting caught is there and that's not enough, so I guess the glory is too sweet and the dollars are too much," said Sharpe, a former 100- and 200-metre Canadian champion.

"I don't know what you could tell them (athletes) that would, you know, sway them away from it."

Today, six summer Olympiads removed from the post-Seoul shambles, Sharpe says you don't have to tell them anything at all.

"I don't think that culture exists today in track and field," says the now coach, who recently had his lifetime ban from federal sports funding lifted by an arbitrator.

"It's gone, in my opinion anyways. I just sense that the whole enhancement thing is gone. People are just working harder and smarter."

Toronto mediator Larry Banack concluded July 30 that Sharpe had met virtually all the redemption criteria Mr. Justice Charles Dubin had set out in his 1990 report that would allow banned athletes to have their federal funding strictures removed.

"The Applicant demonstrated sincerity, contrition, remorse and a passion for the sport of track and field and the promotion of drug-free sport," Banack wrote in his decision.

"I am satisfied that the intention and spirit of the Recommendations of the Dubin Inquiry that contemplated possible future reinstatement have been satisfied by the Applicant.

"I am convinced that the submissions of the Applicant are genuine. It would be inappropriate to prevent such a talented and passionate individual from moving forward to pursue a career which will benefit the sports community as a whole."

The decision could allow Sharpe -- as his similarly reinstated former teammate Desai Williams has successfully done -- to coach at the national team and Olympic levels.

Sharpe now coaches young track athletes at Pickering's Speed Academy Athletics Club, which he helped found in 2006.

Despite Banack's glowing inclusion of his anti-doping commitment in the decision, however, Sharpe says the drug dimensions in track have changed so thoroughly that he feels no need to even bring up the subject with his young charges.

"The fact of the matter is, enhancement drugs, it's not a topic of discussion that we really have with this generation," says Sharpe, head coach at the club.

"It's not something that we have to be lecturing our kids about these days. Not my track kids.

"I have 40 or 50 kids in my club ... and I cannot even fathom the idea of them thinking of using any sort of performance-enhancing drugs."

Beyond that, Sharpe doesn't want to speak of his long-time steroid use, which began in 1980 and only ended when injuries derailed his career in 1987.

"I'm not here to talk about 1989. I've been reinstated and I want to really move forward in terms of the whole discussion around this story," he says.

And as far as track and field goes, Sharpe says there's no longer any steroid issue to talk about.

"I know we have cases that pop up here and there," he says. "But across the board (there's) absolutely no doubt in my mind, based on the education level that's gone on since then, and even the nature of the testing, it's almost suicidal to think you're going to get away with something."

He says much of the drug race in track during the 1980s was an attempt to keep up with Eastern Bloc athletes, who were setting preposterous records in many events. But current policing in track today is so thorough that no one would chance that drug course, Sharpe says.

"Who else has a test where they knock on your door, 24 hours a day anytime they want?" the father of three says.

Sharpe hopes his reinstatement will open opportunities to coach nationally ranked athletes on a global stage.

"Because I've developed an incredible number of high calibre sprinters through the youth and junior age group, it's my goal to be able to coach some of these guys at the national level now," he says.

"And I think based on our (Canada's) recent performances at the international level, it might be time for a bit of change."

Sharpe, who worked successfully in corporate sales jobs after his track ban, is still friendly with Johnson, Williams and his other former Mazda Optimist Track Club teammates, who he still meets occasionally around track meets.